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Seniors at W.S. Neal High School in East Brewton, Alabama are wrapping up their final year. Their graduation ceremony is just around the corner, scheduled for May 22nd. This year's ceremony may be drastically different.

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That's because W.S. Neal may not have a valedictorian or salutatorian. It's certainly nothing to do with the effort turned in by the students, so what's the holdup? It appears that school has been having a little trouble with its computer system.

Specifically, someone hacked in and has been changing grades. This isn't something that happened as the academic year wound down, either. It's reportedly been going on since 2016.

The situation was first reported by local CBS affiliate WKRG, and parents first learned about it when their children were called in to the office for questioning. The Alabama Board of Education and Escambia County Board of Education have launched an investigation, but it's all questions and no answers right now for students and their parents.

Understandably, neither the Board or the school wants to comment on the number of students whose grades were affected. That's best left for after the investigation. Until the extent of the grade hacking is known the top students won't be ranked, which would force an unwanted break in tradition come graduation.

W.S. Neal is far from alone. New Dorp High School in Staten Island was hacked in 2015 and Tenafly High School in New Jersey was hit in 2016. It's happened at universities, too. A University of Iowa student hacked grades for nearly two years starting in 2015. Temple University's systems were compromised all the way back in 2012.

There's no question that schools have it tough when it comes to their computer networks these days. In addition to fending off grade-changing hackers, they're also frequently targeted by criminal hackers. A number of U.S. schools have fallen victim to ransomware in recent years with some eventually paying tens of thousands of dollars to recover files.

Lee started writing about software, hardware, and geek culture around the time that the Red Wings last won the Stanley Cup. The two aren't related in any way, however.

…

Lee started writing about software, hardware, and geek culture around the time that the Red Wings last won the Stanley Cup. The two aren't related in any way, however. When he's not catching up on tech news or blogging about it, you can find him watching or playing baseball and doing his part to ensure the next generation of geeks is raised properly.